It's not something that's come up much, but I created this blog after reading many others, when I thought maybe blog posts would be a nice way to get back into writing after some really intense burnout. This, it turns out, was not a particularly good idea– it appears that no matter the format, I'm incapable of approaching any creative task without a strong tendency toward perfection, which really hamstrings my ability to put words onto paper (or screen, as it were). I have plenty of ideas about what to write, but not so many about how to translate those ideas into something tangible. I need a starting point, a juicy, baited hook that my mind can seize onto like a deep-ocean fish, letting me drag it forth into the open light of written clarity. Thankfully, blogwagons exist.
Although I've never participated in one, the direct nature of writing about a single, predetermined topic appeals to my wander-prone mind. So when Prismatic Wasteland announced the Random Blogwagon, complete with random tables to tell you when and how to write, I figured this would be a good, low-stakes introduction to the concept. The random tables would give me additional direction, letting me stay focused, but with enough flexibility to write about whatever I wanted. So armed with a set of dice, I approached the task.
My first result, an 18 on “Assigned Posting Window”, was fortuitous. I’d already put off the task and wasn’t starting until well into the first week of June, but this meant I still had a little under two weeks to write my post. My next roll, an 11 on “Length of Post”, was more concerning. Embarrassing Knight at the Opera with my post length is a high bar to clear, and a little vague, but the table at least implies I need more than 2,000 words. I began to balk. That’s about four pages of single-spaced typing, roughly a standard academic essay. (For reference, these three intro paragraphs are just under 350 words themselves.)
But while the task seemed difficult, it wasn’t impossible. I had one random table left, the “Include a Reference To…” section. Most of the blogs on the table I’m familiar with, maybe a little over 3/4ths of them. Some are consistent sources of inspiration for my gaming. If I drew the right card, I thought to myself, maybe I could delve deep and greedy into their backlogs, picking from the ancient past a selection of my favorite gaming advice as inspiration for a topic. Carefully, I googled “random playing card” (I don’t have a deck on hand) and compared the results. And thus I found luck had abandoned me for good. In a collection of 52 different blogs, exactly 42 of which I recognized, I’d pulled one of the few I’d not yet stumbled upon.
The blog’s name, Gothridge Manor, had me hopeful at least. But it did scrub my idea of picking a post I was already familiar with, forcing me to start from the most recent post and go scrolling. I was immediately drawn in by the maps and micro-adventures, but wasn’t sure how I might incorporate them into a blogwagon about randomness. In the end, I struck gold at the bottom of the very first page, with “What to Do on a Gaming Break”.
The timing, June 2nd of last year, was perfect, and the content touched on one of my favorite topics, the nature of inspiration. Like Tim Shorts, owner of Gothridge Manor (do some call him Tim?) I also get more gaming ideas from non-gaming material. In fact, most of my ideas probably come from non-gaming sources, and they never really stop either. Even though pulling words out of my head is sometimes like pulling teeth with pliers, ideas for games, stories, and other miscellania come to me for a dime a dozen, and I can guarantee I’ve forgotten more than I’ve ever written down.
The post itself, with specific groupings of inspirational sources, also appealed to my brain’s compulsive need for organization, and gave me the final idea necessary to tie this all together– a series of random tables, each one keyed to a specific type of source, listing a selection of works that have inspired me. And so we finally come to the meat of this post, the real topic at hand, and my contribution to the ever-increasing randomization of a naturally chaotic universe.
Random Inspiration Tables
When talking to other people about creative inspiration, there’s a concept I frequently touch on called “Filling Your Cup.” The phrase was originally meant to refer to fighting off burnout and stress, using activities that replenish your energy instead of reducing them. In some circles it’s also come to mean going farther afield for sources of inspiration, seeking out new creative works and experiences that you can draw on later. These tables are for doing exactly that.
When creating each table, I tried to aim for a good mix of things which are generally fascinating, fertile ground for inspiration, and entirely unheard of. Mostly I tried to make sure it would be things which were mostly new and exciting. Each table leans a little more in one direction or another, and I frequently worried I was including too many entries that all readers would already know and have read/watched. But each time the worry came along, I thought again of the XKCD comic about average familiarity:
“Obscure knowledge is second nature to us freaks, so it’s easy to forget that the average person probably only knows about the phantom time conspiracy and psychobilly culture.” “And the influence of voodoo economics on the modern housing crisis, of course.”
So next time you hit the existential dead-end of writer’s block, or feel your brain going numb staring at a screen, or just want to partake in something without having to do the work of deciding for yourself, these tables have got you covered. And just to make sure you don’t sink too deeply into something only to realize absolutely nothing about it appeals to you, I’ve also included brief descriptions for each topic (and maybe it also helps pad out my word count, what’s it to you?).
Which Table to Use?
This first one is a no-brainer. With nine original categories from Gothridge Manor, I only had to add one more to get a nice, even d10. Since Tim had already made what I assume was an honest mistake in forgetting to list musical sources of inspiration, I went ahead and tacked on an Albums section.
d10 | Roll on… |
1 | Sub-Cultures |
2 | Cults |
3 | History |
4 | General Fiction |
5 | Weird Shit |
6 | YouTube |
7 | Movies |
8 | Limited Series/Television |
9 | Board Games |
10 | Albums |
Sub-Cultures
One of my favorite topics from the original list, but probably the one I struggled most with. It’s not that I didn’t have plenty of strange sub-cultures to pull from– it’s just that, as a fellow lover of all things weird, I was a bit intimidated by Mr. Manor’s existing, deep-cut inclusions. Gopniks are one thing; everyone is familiar with gopniks. But Bagel Heads? Melungeons? Even as a Virginia Appalachian native, I’ve met hardly anyone familiar with this fascinating group from our very own backyard. But, once again keeping in mind that my threshold of weird is (hopefully) a bit higher than most, I opted for including the sub-cultures I found most fascinating personally, and a few which I’ve already co-opted as inspiration in my own gaming.
d10 | Sub-Culture |
1 | Anarcho-Punks. My home group, and a people after my own heart. This punk sub-culture is anticapitalist and anarchist, and has inspired dozens of other sub-genres worth looking at, like the aptly named “crust punk.” |
2 | Birdwatching. Everyone knows what birdwatching is, but have you ever met a birder? Every single one of them is wildly dedicated, in a way matched only by gambling addicts. |
3 | Bosozoku. A type of motorcycle/gang culture found in Japan, which focuses on specific outfits, accessories, and unusual bike modifications. Peaked in the 80s with 50,000 people, now nearly extinct. |
4 | Beatniks. Move past the stereotype of black turtlenecks and you’ll find a deep well of counterculture that laid the foundations for much of the social change of the late 1900s. |
5 | Warez Scene. *The* underground piracy network, dedicated to cracking and releasing every bit of media they can get their hands on. And they do it purely for love of the game and self-satisfaction. |
6 | OSR. If you think the OSR isn’t a subculture of its own at this point, you’re kidding yourself. Rolling this result is your sign to go find a blog you’ve never seen, read the top post, and make it your own somehow. Leave a comment while you’re at it. |
7 | Psychobilly. Another punk spin-off, this is what you get when you cross rockabilly, punk rock, scifi-schlock, and late night C-list horror. |
8 | Sideshows. With a long and storied history, it’s no wonder sideshows have produced their own culture. They also underwent a resurgence in the early 00’s, and you might be surprised to find one near you. |
9 | Chernobyl Stalkers. People who regularly delve into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, either for fun or profit, as well as personal reasons. The name is based on a game that’s based on a movie that’s based on a book. |
10 | The Bills. A disaffected youth subculture from the days of the Belgian Congo, who dressed as western cowboys, formed gangs, and claimed territories named after midwest US locales like “San Antonio.” |
Cults
Sort of a left-field choice for inspiration, although I agree with Tim’s original point that if you want a good, gameable cult, you should be looking to real cults. The sorts we see in movies, comics, and yes, most TTRPG products are too often boiled down to black cloaks, wavy daggers, and strange proclivities. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good swamp cult using alligator skulls as ritual vessels. But if you want deeper material, the history of our own world is rife with it.
The term “cult” is also a little loaded in reference to existing groups. What specifically defines a cult versus something like a “new age religion” is a topic of much debate, and I’ve generally tried to avoid stepping on any toes (and once or twice deliberately stomped a bit). But whether you think they’re a cult or a “legitimate” religion, I’ve tried to assemble a fascinating list either way. d12 | Cults |
1 | Shakers. A New England-based religious group from the late 1700’s, founded around ideals of simple living and egalitarian tolerance. I like them a lot. Once thousands of members strong, now reduced to just three living members, which is already such a gameable concept. |
2 | Guanyin Famen. A buddhist sect founded by a woman who goes by the title “Supreme Master,” and has her own 24/7 satellite-based TV channel. The group also franchises an incredibly delicious vegan restaurant chain, which usually have TVs broadcasting the Supreme Master’s wisdom to diners. |
3 | Scientology. Founded by a scifi author based on his own pseudo-scientific talk therapy, but he had to change the name when he lost the rights to the original. Has so many notable members from Hollywood you wonder why we even bother with conspiracy theories. |
4 | Order of the Solar Temple. A new religion/secret society from France who claimed connection to the Templars and used a grab-bag of everything vaguely “mystic” in their beliefs. Most notable for ending in a series of mass murder-suicides, in spite of the general “respectability” of their members. |
5 | Divine Light Mission. The archetype of a group that may or may-not be a cult, and a great example of both how a group can fracture over time and how they can evolve to suit changing times. Lots of fodder here. |
6 | Fiat Lux. One of the few major UFO cults found outside of the US, in the Black Forest of Germany of all places (spooky). This one has all the trappings, including a prophecy of apocalypse where aliens will rescue the believers. |
7 | Landmark Worldwide. Technically an employee-owned, for-profit company that uses new-age concepts to promote business success and forgoes advertising in favor of pushing attendees to bring friends and family for repeat visits. In other words, perfect for a Mothership one-shot. |
8 | Aumism. Most of what you need to know is that this group founded and built their own “holy city” in the French alps. Home to enormous statues, it looks like a cross between a monastery and theme park. |
9 | Unification Church. A Korean organization founded by a man who claimed to be the second coming of Christ. Surprisingly large, this is the group that Shinzo Abe was part of, and the reason he was assassinated. Also helped supply the Contras (yes, from Iran-Contra). |
10 | The Seekers. Another UFO religion, this one from the midwest US, and often cited as the earliest example. Twice believed the world would end and they’d be saved by a UFO. Twice disappointed. |
11 | Eleusinian Mysteries. Dipping into ancient history for a cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, which may even have been a continuation of a Mycenaean cult. This would have made them up to 1,500 years old before they ended. |
12 | Cult of Reason. France’s first state-sponsored, atheistic religion, created during the French Revolution. Opposed to the Catholic church, it was overthrown a year later by Robespierre’s own Cult of the Supreme Being. |
History
Another excellent inclusion for some non-gaming fun and inspiration. History is everything, literally– every single thing you see, touch, and know was influenced by everything that came before. Often in unexpected ways. The 1800’s textile industry laid the foundations for modern computers; everything about our modern food system is a result of WW1, which in turn played a role in the US global hegemony; and the Roman Empire’s famous roads are the reason for the size of Europe’s rail gauge (okay that last one is a myth, but it’s a fun one).
I also agree that starting broad and digging down is the best way to find the gems among the dirt. To that end, I haven’t given anything so specific as the connections I mentioned above. Instead, I’ve listed a few broad topics that I’ve always found interesting or have influenced parts of my own games. It’ll be up to you to figure out what you can from it (which is also, in my opinion, way more entertaining).
d12 | Historical Bits |
1 | Unification of Wales and England |
2 | Meiji Restoration |
3 | Revolutions of 1848 / The Year of Revolutions |
4 | Interwar Period |
5 | Indian Independence Movement |
6 | Carolingian Dynasty |
7 | Cold War in Africa |
8 | Great Strike Wave of 1946 |
9 | The Maroons |
10 | Animal Court Trials |
11 | Zheng Yi Sao / Shi Yang |
12 | Traveling in the Middle Ages |
General Fiction
Another tough category for me, not because I don’t read it, but because I haven’t had as much time to do so in the past couple years. Between an international move, more focus on writing, and a prior commitment to a book club chock full of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, general fiction has fallen by the wayside. That, and to be honest most of my post-25 reading has been firmly rooted in books about history. I have plenty of those to recommend, but that’s for another time and another list. Instead, I’ve tried to collect a pretty broad swath of general fiction that I think is worth at least one read. Some, like Journey by Jules Verne, also hew a bit closer to genre fiction still, but I’m including them anyway because it’s my list and I can put what I like. I’m also skipping descriptions here because you can get the blurb from the back of the book, and if you’re rolling on this table (like you should be) then you’re honor-bound to be stuck with whatever your dice pick for you anyway.
d20 | Books |
1 | The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho |
2 | Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino |
3 | Perdido Street Station, China Mieville |
4 | Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne |
5 | Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, Hunter S. Thompson |
6 | The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie |
7 | The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet |
8 | The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon |
9 | Candide, Voltaire |
10 | Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forester |
11 | The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft |
12 | The 7 ½ Death of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton |
13 | Satan Burger, Carlton Mellick III |
14 | Numamushi: A Fairy Tale, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh |
15 | Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury |
16 | The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin |
17 | The Wizard of the Crow, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o |
18 | Othello, Shakespeare |
19 | Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte |
20 | Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir |
Weird Shit
Here we are, my bread and butter. Like Tim, this is without a doubt my favorite category. I also agree strongly with his point about lacking wonder in games. When I was younger, I was obsessed with things like cryptids, conspiracy theories, and historical mysteries. In spite of my love of fantasy and sci-fi, I was a thoroughly science-driven child, and knew that none of these things were probably real. But still, the thought lingered… what if? That sense of wonder is a high I’m always chasing, and in spite of my best attempts to capture it in my tabletop games, rarely do I succeed– mostly because I’m the one making the games, and I know for sure what lurks in each hidden corner. But I’ll never stop trying all the same.
A couple of the inclusions here are specific books, but most of them are just little bits of modern-day wonder, some miniature historical fascinations that conjure up a twinge of that nearly-ashen spark of amazement. Some will only take you a half-hour to learn everything you can about them; some wells are deep enough to be lost in for the rest of your life. Some are also so famous already that I wonder if anyone reading this won’t already know what they are. But in those cases, the XKCD comic abides, so I’ve left them.
d12 | Weirdo Juice |
1 | Voynich Manuscript. A 15th century codex full of what might be alchemical instructions, or might be a book of children’s drawings. It’s passed hands dozens of times, and its first confirmed owner is only from the 17th century. Yale University digitally scanned and uploaded the whole thing. |
2 | “Weird US” Book Series. A series of travel guides that started as a magazine. Each one collects oddities, legends, and downright weird shit from states across the U.S. Apparently they’ve got one guide for all but 17 states, so if you want a quick and dirty trip into the weird world of the U.S., grab a copy for whatever state you hold dearest in your heart (my personal favorite is Weird Florida). |
3 | Fenn Treasure. A modern day treasure hunt, a chest full of gold and jewels hidden in the mountains by a wealthy art dealer dying of cancer. He published a book that sparked a decade-long search, with five dead searchers along the way. |
4 | Have You Seen This Man? A published sketch of a man with unusual features, based on the description of a psychiatric patient’s dream. The sketch sparked further testimonials of the same man appearing in the sleeping minds of thousands of others. |
5 | Kowloon Walled City. One of the most densely populated places on Earth, which went ungoverned for almost 40 years as a result of its specific politics. It was everything you expect from dystopian scifi art about the crushing weight of humanity, rendered real and tangible and fascinating. Demolished in the 90s, its legacy lives on in similar settlements across the world. |
6 | Phantom Time Conspiracy. For my money the most fascinating conspiracy out there, which claims an extra 300 years added to our calendar that never really existed, rendering an entire period of European history as fictionalized. Obviously false, but could be real in a game. |
7 | Mad Gasser of Matoon. A series of events in which dozens of people were “poisoned” via gas by a supposed masked assailant who was never found and might never have existed. Blurs the lines between cryptid, conspiracy theory, and true crime. |
8 | Mellified Man. Mummies made by steeping a corpse in honey, with the intent that their body would be transformed into a potent medicine after death. Possibly real, but probably not. Throw this into your next crypt dungeon. |
9 | Kaspar Hauser. A young man who showed up in Nuremberg and claimed to have been raised in total isolation, never stepping foot outside. He quickly gained notoriety, and some claimed he was a long-forgotten prince. He died young, but his story is a wild ride. |
10 | “Great Mysteries of the 20th Century” from Reader’s Digest. A coffee table book I read over and over again in elementary school, full of paranormal phenomena, mysterious deaths, and other “unexplained” things from the 1900’s. Published in 1999, it’s a fascinating look back at 99 years of humanity’s (so far) strangest century. |
11 | Loveland Frog. The only pure cryptid I included on this list, out of risk of re-treading too much ground. This one is about 4-foot tall, humanoid frogmen from Ohio though, which is both too strange and too much like so many dungeon game monsters to not include. |
12 | Slide-Rock Bolter. Not technically a cryptid, this is a creature from the lumberjack folklore of the Americas, which deserves its own entry, really. The bolter is a giant gulper fish that sits on top of mountains, then slides down when people pass by to swallow them whole, and uses the inertia to cross the valley and slide back up to the top of the next hill. A perfect beast for inclusion on a hexcrawl encounter table. |
Youtube
I have to confess, I actually love YouTube. Most of my general, day-to-day watching doesn’t happen on Netflix or Amazon, but rather in the widespread, global video essay industry of YouTube. People talking about random bullshit is always going to be more enticing to my brain than any number of well-executed, story-driven, but ploddingly-paced "limited series". My second confession is that I follow basically no TTRPG channels. Seriously, I counted and it turns out I only follow a literal handful (all of which I included on this list). Most of my subscriptions are game-based, but firmly on the digital side of gaming, though still heavily skewed towards the game design side of things. The rest are an eclectic mix of history, horror, geopolitics, geography, and weird genera.
The ones I put here aren’t necessarily the ones I like the most (although I like all of them a lot) but they are the ones that I find have good bits of writing fuel or advice, or are interesting for their general vibes and ability to keep me engaged. I also somewhat inadvertently aimed for lesser-known channels. Of the twenty listed, only 7 have over 1 million subscribers; 5 have under 100k.
d20 | Channel Name | “Genre” |
1 | Design Doc | Game Design Essays |
2 | Cambrian Chronicles | Welsh History |
3 | Miniminuteman | Archaeology Education |
4 | Game Maker’s Toolkit | Game Design/Production |
5 | Dark 5 | Horror/History/Weird Shit |
6 | Linus Boman | Graphic Design |
7 | Technology Connections | How Technology Works |
8 | Kings and Things | History Miscellania |
9 | Never Knows Best | Game Analysis & Deep Dives |
10 | Internet Pitstop | Vibes & Aesthetics of Anime/Games |
11 | Designing For | Game Design Analysis |
12 | Folding Ideas | Critical Analysis Essays |
13 | Alphastream | Tabletop Designer |
14 | Truth is Scarier Than Fiction | Cryptids |
15 | Questing Beast | Tabletop Designer/Analyst |
16 | Seth Skorkowsky | GM Tips/RPG Reviews |
17 | Corkboards & Curiosities | GM Tips |
18 | Hello Future Me | Writing Analysis |
19 | Crazy Ghost | Video Game Boss Fights |
20 | Any Austin | Video Game… Something. It’s Hard to Describe. |
Movies
I don’t watch a lot of movies. I watch movies more often than most people I know. Both of these things are true. I’m an eminent lover of movie theatres, especially midday showings. At home I struggle to focus on most movies without my twitchy fingers scrabbling like a dying tarantula for the cold metal grip of my phone. But in a theatre it’s easy to get lost in the show, forget that it’s only 3pm, and step out from the dim screening room into a still-young day suddenly full of possibilities. It’s a glorious feeling, matched only by days where I somehow accomplish all of my work, errands, and cleaning before noon.
That said, I also almost never rewatch movies. Most times, a single showing is good enough for me. This holds true even for generally excellent films, like the newly-released Backrooms (good movie, by the way, 7.5/10). But sometimes, a movie grabs me and never lets go, and while I can’t watch anything over and over, there are some that I watch every year. These are those movies. Again, no description. You’re on a computer, you can go to google and ask IMDB if I’m right about how good these movies are or if I’m a filthy liar. Also, Two Towers is on this list, and yes I know everyone has watched it. If you roll it, that’s your sign to go watch it again, because it’s the sort of thing everyone knows so well that they probably don’t watch it as much as they should.
d20 | Movie Title |
1 | Redline |
2 | A Knight’s Tale |
3 | Repo! The Genetic Opera |
4 | True Stories |
5 | Mad Max: Fury Road |
6 | Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (Yes, it’s also on the book list, and yes, I do like it that much) |
7 | Bad Times at the El Royale |
8 | The Green Knight |
9 | Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
10 | The Darjeeling Limited |
11 | My Neighbors the Yamadas |
12 | The Thing (1982) |
13 | Suzume |
14 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
15 | Porco Rosso |
16 | Shin Godzilla |
17 | Sinners |
18 | Fantastic Planet / La Planète Sauvage |
19 | Big Fish |
20 | Phantom of the Paradise |
Limited Series
Like Mr. Manor, I take a bit of umbrage with the term “limited series”. No series should ever be unlimited. Any story worth telling is worthy of an ending; only the most unfortunate husks of once-great ideas are shunted into the perpetual unlife of endless broadcast syndication. Most series are only good for 2-3 seasons worth of great ideas anyway. Very few can hit 5-6 without growing stale. New producers like to pad out these numbers by making each episode an hour long and every season with less than a dozen. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn’t. This is how we end up with so many dead shows built on the bones of good ideas.
I’ve expanded this category to include all sort of TV shows, whether you’d call them limited or not. Once again, it’s a bit of a grab-bag of things I generally find worth watching and things that left an indelible mark on my brain and shocked a dozen different ideas to life. The genre varies a lot, from the auteur horror of
Fall of the House of Usher to the lush, pseudo-historic paradise of
Anne with an “E”. These are equally good shows in my mind. Also, at least half of the list are animated series.
d12 | Show Name |
1 | Arcane |
2 | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
3 | Anne with an “E” |
4 | Cowboy Bebop |
5 | Fall of the House of Usher |
6 | The Leopard |
7 | Squid Game |
8 | Archer |
9 | The Venture Bros. |
10 | The Decameron |
11 | Pantheon |
12 | Kaiba |
Board Games
I generally play a lot of board games, most of which are good. Some of them, like the ones on this list, are very good. However, calling them “inspirational” would be a bit of a misnomer. Few of these have ever inspired anything directly in my games. But all of them do something related to game design very well, or have other lessons to be taken from them. In respect of that, in addition to the name of each game, I’ve also included a bit on each one and what I think it does well/what I have taken away from playing them over and over.
d12 | Board Game | My Takeaway |
1 | Lost Ruins of Arnak | This is a game that forces you to split your focus. To win, you’ll need to handle deck building, resource management, and worker placement, and earn points from three different tracks that all still interact with each other. It’s a good example of how to strike that balance. |
2 | Cartographers | A simple game of drawing cards and then drawing shapes until you have a map. It’s fun and simple, and the maps are begging for further gameability. Maybe you’ll get to it before I finally do. |
3 | Res Arcana | An engine-builder, a game where you slowly build an interlocking set of abilities that get you points faster and faster. It does it well, and teaches a lot about unexpected interactions. |
4 | Settlers of Catan | A very famous board game. It’s not here because of the game, but because this story is proof that any game is fertile grounds for storytelling. |
5 | Bridge | A classic trick-taking game, hundreds of years old. As a game it offers insight into math and probability, but the social rules surrounding it are really the big draw– there are dozens of ways to play, and partners have to develop their own hidden language of bets and non-bets to be successful. |
6 | Terraforming Mars | Another game that manages to balance several subsystems to create a greater whole, but this time done entirely through cards and in-game currency. Sometimes it’s an engine builder, sometimes it’s just a race to the top. |
7 | Azul | The simplest game on this list. You draft colored tiles and place them. Proof that complexity isn’t needed for fun, and I think the tile-drafting could be used as a sub-game for something else. |
8 | Root | This game has entirely asymmetric rules, determined by each player’s faction. Most of the time it’s still very well-balanced, which is impressive. The interactions and connections between each faction’s rules and the larger game hold lessons abundant. |
9 | Mysterium | A tarot-style game where players work together to determine the meaning behind abstract picture cards given to them by the “ghost” who knows the answers. My first experience with what can be accomplished in a game using nothing but picture cards as the resolution mechanic. |
10 | Taverns of Tiefenthal | Yet another game of multiple subsystems, this way is more overt about its circularity. By which I mean you perform step A to gain resources for step B to gather money for step C to build a better deck for step A. |
11 | Quacks of Quedlinburg | A push-your-luck game. It’s simple, but playing it with friends will give you great insight into the inability of some people to understand probability. I have one friend who hates this game not because he dislikes the game itself, but because he has no self-control and never stops until he loses. |
12 | Cosmoctopus | A good game, but not because its gameplay is great. The gameplay is fun, but if it weren’t for the colorful, whimsical, cthulhu-esque aesthetic, it would be much less appealing. A great example of how the right aesthetic elevates a game. |
Albums
Not on the original list, but albums and music are a significant source of creative inspiration for me. I’m the kind of freak who can do a lengthy car ride or a multi-hour writing session in complete silence, not because I dislike music, but because I usually forget to listen to it. But when it does happen, and it’s the right type of music for the moment, it’s like someone’s plugged an IV drip of creativity into my veins. And although I rarely put on music for myself, I have a partner who listens to it constantly on the shared living room TV, and that’s done wonders for expanding my musical horizons.
Again, no descriptions for these. In fact, don’t even look them up. My recommendation is to go in blind. Several are what you’d call concept albums, which I especially appreciate because they’re ready-made story fodder in music form. One of them is a video game soundtrack, but its vibes are immaculate. Two are by David Bowie, and are my favorite albums by him; Blackstar in particular is excellent, even if it’s not generally found on a lot of lists of favorites.
d12 | Albums |
1 | Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance |
2 | Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Arctic Monkeys |
3 | Love this Giant, David Byrne & St. Vincent |
4 | Paradise Killer Original Soundtrack / About That… Paradise Killer B-Sides, Epoch |
5 | Children of the Stars, The Orion Experience |
6 | Blackstar, David Bowie |
7 | Jackrabbit, San Fermin |
8 | x Infinity, Watsky |
9 | America, Location 12, Dispatch |
10 | The Source, Ayreon |
11 | Diamond Dogs, David Bowie |
12 | In League with Dragons, The Mountain Goats |
The End
Phew. The end at long last, and just under the wire (I finished writing this today). According to my word processor, everything above this paragraph is a little over 5,500 words. Admittedly, you could argue that lists of album names and YouTube channels don’t count. But even just the descriptions on some of these lists must bring my total up to at least 3,000 words, right? Maybe I’ll hit 95 paragraphs for the next blogwagon someone does about randomness. I have a few neighbors and businesses around town that could each use about 20 paragraphs of shaming.
I know that most of this isn’t very gameable either, seeing as your mileage may vary on any of these given sources of “inspiration”. So to offset that, I’m including one last gameable table, as a pseudo Joesky Tax. This one is a d10 table for randomizing what size dice table you should use the next time you need to create one. Someone must have done this already, surely. But making all these tables shoved this idea into my head and now it’s eating all of my leftovers, sleeping in my bed, and refusing to leave until I pass it on to all of you.
d10 | Dice Table Size |
1 | d6 Old Reliable. |
2 | 2d6 Pleasantly weighted. |
3 | d10 Slightly bigger, but not unwieldy. |
4 | d12 The underutilized cousin. |
5 | d66 Bastard child of the 2d6 and the d100. |
6 | d20 An industry standard. |
7 | d4 + d6 Capable of strange magicks. |
8 | d33 Like the d100, but smaller and harder to roll. |
9 | d100 You could probably just use this with ranges. |
10 | d4 + d6 + d8 + d10 + d12 + d20 Good luck. |
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